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Old Austrian BBb Tuba

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 1:54 am
by Tom
I've come by the following tuba and was wondering if anyone had any information on them:

Bell reads:

"Produktiv Genossenschaft der Musik Instrumentenmacher Wien X Laseenburgerstrasse 69"

I believe it to mean something along that lines of "Product of the Music Instrument Builders Cooperative, Vienna X e(X=10 in this case?) Lassenburger Street #69"

It is a 4 rotor BBb with double sided stop arms and clockwork mechanisms. It is between 3/4 and 4/4 size...much smaller than a 186 but much larger than a 621, for example. It is silver...perhaps nickel silver and not just silver plate...it almost doesn't look like silver plate to me. The look is very much like the early Cerveny tubas, though I don't believe this one to be Cerveny because of the braces, silver, and valve setup.

I haven't had a chance to measure it or get pictures of it yet

Any ideas?

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:09 am
by tubeast
Tom,
check the spelling of the city. If it actually reads "Wien" instead of "Wein", it really is a viennese tuba. Vienna is divided in "Bezirke" (quarters) adressed to in roman numbers.
These start with "Ist Bezirk" in the center and work their way to the outskirts in some kind of spiral.
The X would refer to the 10th Bezirk of Vienna.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:50 pm
by Tom
It is indeed Wien, not Wein as I originally posted.

I guees it's a viennese tuba then!

Thanks!